Archive for May 25th, 2010

The National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO) extracts and condenses the material that follows from Mexican and Central and South American on-line media sources on a daily basis. You are free to disseminate this information, but we request that you credit NAFBPO as being the provider.

Calderón put them in their place! [Portions of an Op/col. by Jorge Chabat, titled as shown]

During President Calderón’s state visit to the United States last week he addressed the Congress of that nation in a speech that was applauded to the skies by Beatriz Paredes, the head of the PRI (pol. party) and Carlos Navarrete, the PRD (pol. party) senator. What wasn’t said is that this support for the President is based on a series of petitions to the United States, about which neither the PRI nor the PRD have anything to lose. Who in Mexico can oppose a migratory reform in the United States? Nobody. So it doesn’t cost anyone anything. The ones opposed are various American congressmen and part of the public opinion of our neighbor to the north. And the same happens with the other bilateral relation issues: the sale of firearms in the U.S., the entry of Mexican trucks into the United States, the combat against the use of drugs in that country. Who in Mexico can be against those?

The problem comes up when measures have to be taken in our country. If it’s about generating jobs so that so many Mexicans won’t emigrate to the north, then the issue gets complicated. In order to do that, it is necessary to reform the Mexican economy to a competitive world level in order to attract investment. And that’s where the stuff hits the fan. What do you mean the rich have to pay taxes, if they’re the ones who support the politicians? How is it that informal commerce is going to start to be taxed, if that’s where the votes and the hidden support come from? What do you mean it’s necessary to make the government efficient and reduce the privileges of the federal bureaucracy, the Legislative Power, the Court Ministers, the officials of the IFE [Mexico’s Federal Electoral Institute,] the governors and their entourage of freeloaders? No way, no how. ‘Cause we’re milking the system peacefully. Have the Americans give more work to the Mexicans, that’s what they’re there for. Finally, they have to pay for the sin of having taken half of the Mexican territory in the XIX century. And if they finally give each of us Mexicans a monthly payment, we accept it. With pride, certainly, but we accept it. And all the Mexican politicians are going to be as one with the valiant President who, like Calderón, put the Americans in their place.

Neither is it about making our agencies function, nor applying the law. That’s too complicated. And if there’s narco violence in Mexico it’s because they use drugs on the other side of the border and not because impunity, corruption and inefficiency rule the day in our security and justice system, nor because drugs are sold in every Mexican city street corner. No sir. We’re victims of imperialism, and it has the obligation to remedy all our ills.

It’s not strange that the whole political class of the country has supported the demanding speech of the Mexican president in Washington. Bottom line, asking costs nothing, and the United States continues to be the best scapegoat for everything that works badly in this country. Meanwhile, for sure, we’ll keep on blaming the United States for what we haven’t been able, or haven’t wanted, to do in our country. Or what else might the gringos have been thinking? That we weren’t going to tell them the way things really are? No way! http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/editoriales/48463.html

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La Cronica de Hoy (Mexico City) 5/24/10

“SB1070 law would affect 400 thousand Mexicans in Arizona”

Ernesto Saro, a Mexican senator and member of its North America Foreign Relations Committee, said that Arizona’s law SB1070 doubtlessly worries the Mexican government. He stated, “The data we have is that one million Mexicans reside in Arizona, of which 400 thousand lack documents and are at risk of suffering the noxious effects of the law. For that reason we ask all fellow citizens to not sign anything and to demand consular presence if they are detained.”

Mexican federal police captured 71 immigrants “who were traveling with no documents” near the town of Texistepec, state of Veracruz. The group, which included minors, was riding on top of freight train cars, and included 47 Hondurans, 10 Guatemalans, 13 Salvadorans and one Nicaraguan. All were taken to an immigration office in Acayucan, Veracruz, “where their migratory status will be ascertained.”

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Police keep getting arrested

El Salvador’s National Civil Police reports show that 93 policemen have been arrested between Jan. 1st and April 30 of this year, an average of six per week. The arrests have been due to homicide, kidnapping, extortion, physical injuries and illegal possession of firearms. Four of the arrests were for links to drug traffic.

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El Porvenir (Monterrey, Nuevo Leon) 5/24/10

Mass detention of police

Five hundred ninety-four police of the city of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, were suddenly held in quarters for two days without warning. They are being subjected to various exams to attempt to determine which have links with drug traffickers. Mexican army and state officials are conducting the tests.

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El Informador (Guadalajara, Jalisco) 5/24/10

Record marihuana haul

Mexican military responded to an anonymous call and seized 13,000 kilos of marihuana that had been stashed in a warehouse by the township of San Isidro Mazatepec, state of Jalisco. The weed was packaged and “was destined to the north of the country.” The only person there claimed to be just a custodian. He was arrested.

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El Sol de Mexico (Mexico City) 5/24/10

Cocaine in the Pacific

Three northbound Ecuadoran drug smugglers were detained by Mexican naval personnel while transporting “more than” 600 kilos of cocaine in a “fast boat.” The arrest took place on the Pacific, several hundred kilometers off the Mexican coast, after the Mexican Navy received “information from international organizations.”

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Armada Nacional de Colombia (Bogota, Colombia) 5/24/10

Cocaine in the Caribbean

During a chase by Colombian naval units, two drug smugglers refused to stop, then beached their boat and fled into Santa Catalina Island in the Caribbean. Colombian military found “more than half a ton” of cocaine aboard.